Bharatpur to Jaipur

Jaipur Travel Blog

If we wanted we could go to Keoladeo bird park early this morning but it probably wasn't worth it as there wasn't much water so hence there wouldn't be many birds. Our local bus to Jaipur was going to pick us up around 10am so we would of had to go to the bird park real early ! I also woke up with a sore throat, my sinuses swollen and sore and I had a bloked nose I suspect the dusty trip to the village the day before didn't help much but I'm guessing I had got a cold. We boarded the bus which was similiar to the bus we took from Agra and the journey was around 5 hours. It was a pleasant run with a stop on the way for about 20 mins where the toilets were clean and we could buy refreshments.

He must have strong legs

We passed through alot of small towns on the way which all looked pretty similiar, sandstone buildings, litter and cows. We knew we were coming into Jaipur by the walls, the hills and of course the traffic ! The bus dropped us off in the main street and I got my first sighting of a camel cart ! we were picked up by private cars and taken to our hotel Mrignayani which was an old converted school so had plenty of character. The hotel didn't look much from the front but once inside it was lovely and we were greeted by the staff who put some orange flowers around our necks and dotted by head between the eyes with dome red paint. Once settled in, our guide suggested later in the afternoon we take a trip up to some old ruins on the top of a hill where we could watch the sunset over Jaipur. I just wanted to find the nearest chemist and get some cough medicine and losengers as my throat was killing me.

Our hotel greeted us with flowers and dot between the eyes ! and of course a cup of sweet lassi

Our guide took me across the road from the hotel to a little chemist which wasn't more than a hole in the wall really, you got to love these little shops ! back at the hotel I met the others up on the roof top for a spot of lunch, rested a while and submitted some dirty laundry to be done. In the late afternoon we met up and private cars took us up to the ruins which I can't remember the name of sorry. The drive up was nice winding roads and surrounding hills. At the the top it was just literally ruins and you could see Jaipur below so I got some snaps of the sunset which was OK but the smog didn't make for a brilliant sunset. I wasn't feeling flash and was getting a cough so climbing hills was becoming an effort. Our group gathered on top of a terrace where there were table and chairs and a small mobile outdoor bar.

Sunset over Jaipur

We all sat a while and had drinks, chatted and watched the twinkling lights below. On getting back to the hotel well after dark our guide suggested a nice restaurant for us all to go to so we all took tuk tuks. The traffic was horrendous there was no room to move on the roads and horns were blaring from all directions, fumes were making me cough, couldn't our guide choose a restaurant closer ! At last we reached the restaurant and it was nice but not worth the crap journey across the city to get to it. On coming out the restaurant some time later and waiting for each group member to emerge, trouble with large groups you have to wait for everyone ! I bought a couple of Rajasthan puppets of a street seller for 200 rupees. It was then the long tuk tuk ride back to the hotel.